title: Modeling healthy male white matter and myelin development: 3 through 60months of age.
abstract: An emerging hypothesis in developmental and behavioral disorders is that they arise from disorganized brain messaging or reduced connectivity. Given the importance of myelin to efficient brain communication, characterization of myelin development in infancy and childhood may provide salient information related to early connectivity deficits. In this work, we investigate regional and whole brain growth trajectories of the myelin water fraction, a quantitative magnetic resonance imaging measure sensitive and specific to myelin content, in data acquired from 122 healthy male children from 3 to 60months of age. We examine common growth functions to find the most representative model of myelin maturation and subsequently use the best of these models to develop a continuous population-averaged, four-dimensional model of normative myelination. Through comparisons with an independent sample of 63 male children across the same age span, we show that the developed model is representative of this population. This work contributes to understanding the trajectory of myelination in healthy infants and toddlers, furthering our knowledge of early brain development, and provides a model that may be useful for identifying developmental abnormalities.
authors.affiliation: Advanced Baby Imaging Lab, School of Engineering, Brown University, Providence, RI 02912, USA. Electronic address: douglas_dean_iii@brown.edu.
authors.forename: Douglas C
authors.initials: DC
authors.lastname: Dean
authors.forename: Jonathan
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: O'Muircheartaigh
authors.forename: Holly
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Dirks
authors.forename: Nicole
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Waskiewicz
authors.forename: Katie
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Lehman
authors.forename: Lindsay
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Walker
authors.forename: Michelle
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Han
authors.forename: Sean C L
authors.initials: SC
authors.lastname: Deoni
mesh_terms: D001921:Brain / Q000166:cytology / Q000254:growth & development*; D002675:Child, Preschool; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging; D008297:Male; D008959:Models, Neurological; D009186:Myelin Sheath; D009413:Nerve Fibers, Myelinated; D055495:Neurogenesis
keywords: Brain development; Infant imaging; Myelin maturation; Myelin water fraction; White matter development